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Timeline of The Mummy films
The remake Mummy franchise: The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior ''The Scorpion King The Mummy The Mummy Returns The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor The Mummy films are a series of movies produced by Universal Pictures, starring such actors as Brendan Fraser, Arnold Vosloo, Rachel Weisz, Maria Bello, Jet Li, Luke Ford, John Hannah and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. This series is a re-imagining of the original Mummy franchise kick-started in the year 1932 with the horror classic The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff. The first two films in the current trilogy, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns focused on Egyptian culture, with the villain being Imhotep, a priest who was cursed with monstrous powers and immortality as punishment for breaking sacred holy laws. The third film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor switches focus to Chinese mythology, with Qin Shi Huang (played by Jet Li) acting as the antagonist. The Mummy film saga also includes the spin-off 2002 film The Scorpion King, starring Dwayne Johnson as Mathayus, a character introduced in The Mummy Returns. What follows is a timeline of the events and universe that the Mummy films exist in, using all the information provided by the movies to reconstruct a rough ‘fictional history.’ 3000 BC: * In Ancient Egypt, an Akkadian assassin named Mathayus, along with his two brothers, are hired to kill a sorceress under the control of the bloodthirsty warlord Memnon, who has been leading an unstoppable army in an elaborate quest to conquer Egypt. A small group of brave rebels assign the Akkadians their mission, and while they are sneaking through one of Memnon’s army camps Mathayus’ two brothers are killed before his very eyes. He then escapes execution-by being eaten alive by fire ants, with the help of a mischievous horse thief, and vows to avenge his brothers’ deaths. * Mathayus manages to infiltrate Memnon’s vast city of Gomorrah, and abducts the beautiful sorceress, holding her hostage as they flee the alarmed city. While Mathayus leads his two companions towards refuge, a small team of Memnon’s best men, led by Thorak, attacks him. As he fights them during a monstrous sandstorm, the wounded Thorak stabs the Akkadian in the leg with an arrow dipped in scorpion venom, poisoning his blood. The sorceress, named Cassandra, magically heals him, but states that the venom will always run in his veins. * They reach an Oasis lorded over by the imposing warrior Balthazar, who is defeated by Mathayus in a duel. He is convinced to help lead the small remnants of free peoples in a final battle against Memnon. During this time, Cassandra begins to fall in love with Mathayus, and witnesses a premonition of him being killed while battling Memnon. * The next night, the rebellion group led by Balthazar breaks into Gomorrah and launches an attack on Memnon’s palace, during which Mathayus finally faces his enemy in a vicious sword duel. The Akkadian succeeds in killing the warlord with an arrow pulled out of Mathayus’ shoulder (having been shot at him earlier by a foe), and, by doing so, inadvertantly fulfills an ancient prophecy that a warrior will be favored by the gods and be called ‘The Scorpion King’. * Memnon’s armies then pledge allegiance to their former master’s victorious opponent, and Mathayus becomes the King of legend, with Cassandra by his side as Queen. 3067 BC: * The Scorpion King leads his army in a massive campaign to take over the known world. His forces attack the Egyptian capitol Thebes, and are defeated after seven long bloody years. Driven into the desert of Ahm Shere, the Scorpion King makes a pact with the god Anubis. In return for his soul and infinite servitude, Mathayus is given command of the undefeatable Army of Anubis, which he uses to successfully raid Thebes. However, Anubis then breaks his promise, stealing away the warrior’s soul and transforming him into a demonic man-scorpion monstrosity. 1290 BC: * In Ancient Egypt, the treacherous high priest Imhotep secretly has an affair with Pharaoh Seti I’s concubine, Ank-su-namun. She and her secret are then discovered, and she commits suicide. But when Imhotep tries to resurrect her with the forbidden Book of the Dead, the Medjai catches him before he can complete the ritual. As punishment, he is cursed with the Hom Dai, giving him immortality, supernatural powers, a murderous craving for human flesh, and mental control over the Biblical Ten Plagues. He is buried beneath the city of Hamunaptura. 200 BC: * Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin province in Ancient China enlists the service of the sorceress Zi Yuan in his quest for immortality. She travels with the Emperor’s top general Ming Guo to a sacred library to retrieve an old scroll, containing ancient spells and secrets from a forgotten age. While on this mission, Yuan becomes romantically involved with Guo, directly disobeying Huang’s demand that Yuan is his only. Their secret affair is discovered upon their return, and in retribution for his treachery, Guo is tied to four horses and then ripped limb from limb, as the furious Emperor stabs Yuan. Upon doing so, Huang (along with his invincible army of ten thousand strong) is transformed into a terra-cotta statue, frozen in suspended animation for all time. When Yuan was commanded to read from the sacred scroll, she in fact secretly cast an enchantment upon the Emperor’s forces if he ever crossed her. Thus, Huang and his legions were frozen as clay. Yuan fled, never to be seen again for many centuries, and the surviving faithful of Emperor Qin Shi Huang buried the frozen monarch and his army in a vast underground tomb, protected by many devices. Legend then grows that if the Emperor were ever to awaken, he would unleash his wrath on the entire globe. 1923 AD: * A team of French Foreign Legionnaires led by American mercenary Richard (Rick) O’Connell take refuge in the ruins of Hamunaptura when they are attacked by an army of Tuaregs. O’Connell is the only survivor of the battle, and manages to return to civilization (with a tiny souvenir) as a group of mysterious desert people, the descendants of the Medjai, keep close watch on the ruins, guarding Imhotep’s grave… 1923 A.D. * A battle involving a garrison of the French Foreign Legion took place in the ruins of Hamunaptra against a number of Tuareg warriors, with nearly all Legionnaires killed. 1926 A.D. * Librarian Evelyn Carnahan and her brother Jonathan came into possession of a puzzle box stolen from then-imprisoned former French Foreign Legion officer Richard O’Connell. The siblings hired O’Connell to lead them to the city, in pursuit of the fabled Book of Amun-Ra, an ancient book made of solid gold said to contain many ancient spells and curses. En route they met a team of Americans also searching for the legendary treasure of Seti I. * While camped at the ruins of Hamunaptra, the Americans uncovered the sacred Book of the Dead, defying the grim warning of doom written on the chest containing the Book. Later, Evelyn stole the book from the rival camp, and read from it so as to prove to O'Connell that the curses were pure myth. The magical words brought back the mummified Imhotep from his slumber, who then began to kill off the unfortunate Americans that participated in the opening of the chest. * Imhotep managed to heal himself back to flesh-and-blood human form by absorbing the organs and fluids of the Americans, and abducts Evelyn. Because of his procuring of eyes from a near-sighted man, Imhotep mistook Evelyn for the modern reincarnation of his ancient love Anck-Su-Namun. Once his eyesight was better, Imhotep saw Evelyn more clearly and chose her as a sacrifice upon returning to Hamunaptra so that he might resurrect his beloved with Evelyn as a sacrifice. Rick O’Connell, who has fallen in love with Evelyn, vowed to rescue her. * O’Connell succeeded in rescuing Evelyn from Imhotep’s plans, and together, with the assistance of Jonathan and the Medjai chieftain Ardeth Bay, found the Book of Amun Ra and used the spells within to make Imhotep a mortal man once more. Rick O'Connell stabbed the priest in the gut, and Imhotep fell back into a pit where the souls of many helped to bring down his own. His last words were, “Death is only the Beginning…” Miscellaneous (1925-1933 AD): * Rick and Evelyn become married, and move into a mansion in London, England. Together they conceive a son, Alexander. Evey evolves into a much stronger and less-shy woman than she was before, and now begins to have disturbing dreams and memories concerning an Egyptian woman who looks strikingly like her… * A top-secret excavation of the buried remains of Hamunaptura is begun by a cult society that loyally worships Imhotep. The Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun Ra are recovered from the ruins with the help of a mysterious woman named Meela Nais, but the Book of Amun Ra is presumably disposed of so that it no longer poses a threat against Lord Imhotep. In reality, Meela is the reincarnation of Ank-su-namun, Imhotep’s beloved from ancient times. The dig is secretly spied on by Ardeth Bay, who discovers the cult’s plan to resurrect their master so that he may challenge the revived Scorpion King for command of the invincible Army of Anubis, which they will use to destroy mankind and rule the earth. * Evelyn (Evey) O’Connell is begged by the Bembridge Scholars to run the British Museum, thanks to her and Rick’s reputation as archeologists and treasure hunters. 1933 AD-Egyptian Year of the Scorpion: * Eight years have passed since the adventure at Hamunaptra, and Rick and Evelyn’s son Alex is now a young, inquisitive and mischievous boy. The O’Connell family travels to Egypt on another dig down in the ruins of a temple in Thebes. Here, Evelyn discovers a secret room where inside, lost for centuries, is the Bracelet of Anubis: a magical object once worn by the Scorpion King. A trio of hired thugs arrives to steal the Bracelet but are forced to retreat when the opening of the chest containing the object sparks a booby trap that floods the temple. Rick, Evelyn and young Alex survive, and return home to London. * Back in Egypt, the cultists have recovered the mummy of Imhotep, encased in a block of solidified obsidian. Meela Nais is annoyed at the mercenaries’ failure to steal the Bracelet. It is now the Year of the Scorpion, the prophesized time that the Scorpion King will finally awaken and conquer the world. The Bracelet is a map leading to the location of the fabled Oasis of Ahm Shere, a hidden jungle with a golden pyramid, the place where the Scorpion King currently slumbers, in the middle. The cult needs the Bracelet to lead them to Ahm Shere. * The cult travels to London to confront the O’Connell’s. They manage to kidnap Evelyn and steal the chest, not knowing that Alex had curiously put on the Bracelet prior and hurriedly placed a bronze statuette inside instead. Driving to the closed British Museum, the cultists perform a ceremony with the assistance of the Book of the Dead and succeed in reviving Imhotep once more. Just then Rick O’Connell and Ardeth Bay crash the party, rescuing Evey. Soon after this, while resting from an attack by Imhotep’s mummy soldiers, the O’Connell’s helplessly watch as the cultists abduct Alex, for they now know that he is wearing the Bracelet. * The Bracelet will never come off until Alex enters the Gold Pyramid within six days, or his life will be sucked out of him by the desert itself. Rick and Evelyn team up with downtrodden pilot Izzy Buttons and his homemade dirigible to go off and try to rescue their son, with Ardeth Bay and Jonathan assisting them. Imhotep, meanwhile, regenerates back to full healthy humanity after killing the three greedy mercenaries (who had been tricked into opening the very same chest that the American treasure hunters had unwisely opened eight years prior), and he and a newly-revived Ank-su-namun share a flashback concerning the situation behind Imhotep’s punishment. * Evelyn finally discovers in a hazy recollection that her strange dreams are in fact recollections of her past life: she is the reincarnation of Princess Nefertiri, daughter of King Seti. Nefertiri had witnessed her father’s murder by Ank-su-namun and Imhotep. Ardeth Bay explains that this, combined with the recent revelation that Rick was chosen at birth to be a Medjai, proves his theory of destiny. * Eventually the O’Connell’s catch up with Imhotep’s party, having been guided by secret clues that Alex had cleverly left behind: directions to where he and his captors were heading next. In a canyon above the Nile River, the dirigible is forced to crash-land from a magical tidal wave summoned by Imhotep, and the rescue group finds themselves having finally arrived at the Oasis of Ahm Shere. They then head into the jungle. * Imhotep’s loyal servants are ambushed in the jungle by a tribe of murderous Pygmy Mummies. During the ensuing chaos, confusion and bloodshed, Rick rescues his son and gets him inside the Gold Pyramid, saving the boy from his time limit of six days. However, Evelyn O’Connell is then stabbed in the gut by Ank-su-namun, and she passes away. Vengeful, Rick heads into the Pyramid to confront Imhotep, who is in the process of calling out the Scorpion King to battle him. * Before Imhotep enters the battle chamber, the god Anubis removes his immortal powers in order to give the Scorpion King a fighting chance. Rick O’Connell attacks him just before the moment that the monstrous Scorpion King awakens and reveals himself, ready for a challenge. Imhotep tricks the Scorpion King into chasing Rick while the mummy runs off to find the Spear of Osiris, the only weapon that can kill the Scorpion King, which happens to be in Jonathan’s possession. During this, Alex sneaks away with the Book of the Dead and reads the proper spell that heals and resurrects his mother, Evelyn. * Outside the Oasis, in the desert, the Army of Anubis rises from the sand, ready to face the gathered armies of the Medjai being led by Ardeth Bay. An epic war begins between the two factions, but the jackal-warriors are surprisingly poor fighters, with not a single casualty on the Medjai side. Realizing that this is far, far too easy, Ardeth Bay then sees on the horizon the true Army…millions and millions of Anubis soldiers speeding across the desert towards the small group of helpless Medjai. * Inside the Gold Pyramid, Rick uses the Spear of Osiris to impale the Scorpion King, and commands that he and the Army of Anubis, “go to hell!” The Army then vanishes into dust, while the Scorpion King reverts into a cloud of ash, knocking both Rick and Imhotep into a bottomless pit leading straight to the Underworld. They barely manage to grasp onto the ledge. * As the Oasis begins to disappear in a massive enchantment that causes it to be swallowed up by the desert, inside the Pyramid Rick pleads for the revived Evelyn to run and leave him, to save herself. Imhotep, however, opts for the opposite, begging Ank-su-namun to come to his aid. She finally breaks, running off in fear. Heartbroken, Imhotep finally bids farewell to his two enemies, Rick and Evey O’Connell (who bravely risked her life and helped her husband to safety), in a poignant moment of redemption when Imhotep lets go and tumbles into the bottomless canyon, disappearing forever. * The O’Connell family Rick, Evelyn, Jonathan and Alex head outside to find the Oasis sucking itself up, and they have no choice but to climb upwards. They become trapped at the top of the Pyramid, and Jonathan snatches away a large diamond sitting on an altar on the pyramid’s peak. Just when all hope seems lost, Izzy appears in his dirigible, having miraculously repaired it in time for them to escape, and the O’Connell’s climb aboard and fly off just before the Oasis of Ahm Shere disappears forever. The victorious heroes then head back home, with Ardeth Bay on his horse in the desert below wishing his old friends luck and peace. Miscellaneous (1933-1947 AD): * The Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, begins his genocide of various minority groups in the late 1930’s. The Japanese, who have allied with Hitler’s Nazi party, attack the American naval base Pearl Harbor. America then officially joins the war against Hitler’s forces, to be called World War II. * During this time, Rick and Evelyn O’Connell are hired as spies by the British government, doing covert work during the war. When Hitler and his regime is finally defeated, Rick and Evelyn retire, while a now-adult Alex heads off to seek his own glory under the guise of attending school. 1946 AD (Post-WWII)-Chinese Year of the Dragon: *Alex O’Connell discovers the legendary Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Qin Shi Huang, China’s tyrannical first Emperor. He is attacked by a beautiful assassin, and becomes tangled up in the scheme of a Chinese military zealot who desires to conquer China with the aid of the resurrected Emperor. *Alex goes to his now-retired parents Rick and Evelyn for help. It turns out that they have been brought back into the adventure business too. They have been hired for “one last mission” by the British government: to guard a priceless Chinese artifact stolen from a museum in Shanghai.